In the business world of today, advocacy marketing is more important than ever. Advocacy, or advocate marketing is a method you can use to promote your brand through your customer’s support. The majority of consumers tend to conduct a considerable amount of research before purchasing a product. They not only look at the specifics of the product, but reviews from those who have already made the purchase.
Your goals as the owner of your company are to create a stellar product with excellent service and to generate the best reviews possible. The more people positively chat about your brand, about how impressive it is, the more it will travel. Ultimately, your sales and popularity will increase.
Is Advocate Marketing a Must?
The short answer is YES! It’s a vital catalyst to your brand’s growth and awareness. The more customers are satisfied with your product, the more they will talk and spread the word about what it’s done for them. Getting people to buy your product takes some convincing, and your customers can do some of that for you.
Invesp.com says that 88% of consumers put the highest level of trust in word-of -mouth recommendations from people they know. Ambassador.com says that 91% of B2B (Business to Business) buyers are influenced by word-of-mouth when making their decision.
Building a Bond
Businesses see increased success rates when they take the time to form a bond with their customers. Expressing how much you value your customer’s dedication to your brand helps build this bond. It ensures that they will repeatedly turn to your company versus a competitor, and makes them more likely to recommend you as well.
You should give your customers something that’s worth staying for. If you foster those relationships, they are more likely to stay with your company. It will also allow them to increase leads and potentially increase revenue for your company because they advocate on your behalf.
Start With a Strategy
Before you can even consider recruiting advocates for your business, you will need to develop a strategy. The following steps can help you in developing a triumphant advocate marketing strategy and also assist in monitoring your ROI (Return On Investment)
Step1. Establish Advocates
To begin with, you need to determine who might be a potential advocate. Asking yourself these questions can help steer you in the right direction:
- Who spends the most money?
- Who are your best customers?
- Who’s viewed your product on sites associated with your industry?
- Who’s been loyal the longest?
Determining who are the best advocates for your brand will not happen overnight. You’ll have to work at it and monitor their interactions over time. Look for who likes, comments, and shares your posts on social media. It is unlikely they would share posts if they were not your advocate.
Step 2. Ask “The Ultimate Question” of Potential Advocates
Once you’ve developed a list of potential advocates, ask them this question: How likely are you to recommend the product or service to a friend or associate on a scale of 1-10?
This question will help you distinguish who’s a loyal advocate and who’s not. If their answer is a nine or above then should be considered an advocate. If they’re not currently on your list of advocates, then they have the potential to become one.
Step 3. Who Are Your Advocates?
Focusing on who the best possible advocates are, it’s time to identify their personas. Identifying the persona of your advocates can allow you to pinpoint your audience and customer pool. Therefore, it aids in determining what kind of people benefit from your brand the most.
This step will be easier for B2B (Business to Business) marketers because they already have their options filtered. That means that they can look at job titles, industry, and things of that nature. Whereas B2C (Business to Consumer) marketers have a vast pool to choose from and the possibilities are endless. However, there will still be a pattern. Look for customers who have the same interest, household income, gender, or age. Usually, these demographics can give you an idea of why they are advocates of your brand.
Step 4. Motivate Your Customers
Finding a way to motivate your customers is key to gaining advocates. Everyone doesn’t identify with motivation in the same ways. While some may prefer to have early access to new products, others want a financial incentive. Focus on the advocates that don’t want monetary benefits.
In order to keep your advocates, you must maintain their engagement. Using advocates isn’t free. The longer you use them to promote your business the more expensive it will become, especially if money is what you’re using to keep their interest. While it will likely take time to grow your advocate list, it will be more sustainable once you do.
Step 5. Measure Your ROI
The hardest part is over, but you must find a way to track your ROI. Why is this so important? It might be difficult to convince executives that you have a successful strategy without the results to back it up. Try to avoid details like clicks, shares, and downloads unless your mission is to increase brand awareness. Typically, it’s your profit that matters the most.
Look into metrics that associate with your profit such as cost per acquisition, revenue per customer, and visitor-buyer conversion rates. You can make tracking these things easier by integrating your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and automation marketing. You can also use things like monitoring links, surveys, and numerous other tools that can deliver your deals and leads to the appropriate marketing channel.
Create & Execute an Advocate Marketing Strategy
Creating and Executing an effective advocate marketing strategy is vital to increasing your brand’s awareness and profits. Your customers can aid not only by purchasing your products but by telling others and completing reviews of your products and services. If you haven’t developed your strategy, the steps we’ve outlined for you should help you get started on the right foot.
We know that success is critical to you. Advocacy marketing can be a multiplier for your business strategy. If you need assistance developing your advocacy marketing strategy, Connie Kroskin Consulting is available to assist you in this venture. Contact us today to discuss getting started on your advocacy marketing plan.